6.14.2012

I've been asked several times if I have any trains from the UK, and as other projects or trains have gotten in the way, I've yet to write up anything about this Diesel Multiple Unit from Graham Farish. So here it is!

This is a Class 150-1 DMU (also referred to as "Centro" apparently?) in the Central Trains livery, you can view my video review of this locomotive/coach combo in the above video, or read my comments in this blog post.

For one, I have to say the detailing and printing on this set is quite impressive. Here's a few photos to share that point of view:

Its not merely the printing detail that I find well above average, but the extra molding/color that was put into the underframe details (Note! There are a lot of little detail pieces and careful handling is required or you may lose / break one of these pieces! Yes, it happened to me!).

Check out the detail on the little sign on the cab windows! That's incredible!

If that's not enough, check out the 'end car' details! Considering that this is an area of the train likely to be seen even less than the under-side, I'm impressed!

"All well and good" you might say "but given that its a British product, how does it RUN?" I am glad you asked! To be honest, it seems to stack right up there with any similar offering from Minitrix, Fleischmann or Kato! Smooth, relatively quiet operation!

Conversion to DCC was relatively easy (NEM 651 socket), although I did have one problem with some lose contact between the motor and the power pick-ups. This is a not uncommon problem with many locomotives in our scale where the necessary tension that holds one contact to another is just not enough and a little bit of extra effort is required to more solidly secure the contact. I found (as I often do) some help guiding me to a solution on one of the N Gauge forums.

These two cars are sold as a set, one of the cars is powered and one is a dummy. I mentioned above installing a decoder for the motor car, but there is a second socket in the dummy car to allow you to change the direction of the lights when you change the direction of the DMU. I have not yet installed this in my dummy, so you will see both white and red lights on in my dummy car (installing the decoder will ensure that only red or white lights will show in the appropriate directions of travel). Compare the two above photos with the two below to see the difference.

I actually picked this set up some time ago on a trip to London where I took a Southern Line EMU down to Ford, UK and visited the well-known Gaugemaster shop (right next to the little station in Ford). It was a great trip, and I would have preferred a Southern Lines EMU rather than the Central lines, it was still a great purchase and a terrific introduction to UK modelling and Farish quality.

I won't go into much more detail, there are several other videos on this model (I recommend NGaugeUK's quite highly - I find his videos to be very compelling temptations to get more UK material!) and plenty of coverage of this model on the N Gauge forums.

That is it for now! Enjoy your summer! As always, thanks for reading this humble blog, and always feel free to comment or correct my stupid blog posts! Thanks!

About Me

I'm into N Scale to have fun. Growing up my Dad was really big into HO (U.S.A. of course, mostly Western U.S. roads like Great Northern, Milwaukee Road, Northern Pacific, etc...) and he built me a small N Scale layout which I enjoyed as a small boy. Of the various trains I had at the time, the brand 'Minitrix' stuck in my head. As the years passed, N Scale was forgotten as new interests took my time.
As a new parent, I got back into model trains through O Gauge (Lionel and MTH). However, the cost of this scale, and the space needed for the sort of layout I wanted, made it a very frustrating hobby. Then one day at a hobby shop in California, I came across the Trix 2003 catalog; Inside this catalog were beautiful models of trains across Europe shown on beautiful layouts - and I was converted! It took a few years, but most of the O Gauge was sold (or stored) and I used the funds to start my new fantasy in N Scale.
Soon, I also discovered the amazing trains of Japan in N Scale, and begin my quest to build an interesting urban layout in a complete fantasy setting where the great trains of the world can run side by side!